Free Republic

They don't know what they're doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious. Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here. The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of...

Economists worried about the U.S.’s ongoing need for China to buy U.S. assets to fund current-account imbalances watch capital-flow data while biting their nails. As it turns out, in November, China finally did start to reduce their purchases of long-term U.S. debt, but for now it is difficult to explain why. After all, China increased short-term holdings, and it remains the largest holder of U.S. Treasurys, with $681.9 billion. The U.S. Treasury’s international capital statistics showed that in November, China’s net holdings of long-term U.S. Treasury securities fell by more than $9 billion. However, the country’s short-term holdings rose by...

An investment manager at South Korea's national pension fund said Monday it might sell U.S. Treasurys because of the prospect that they will become less profitable and stoke inflation. With the statement, South Korea's largest investor added its voice to a group of investors and analysts who in recent weeks have expressed a bearish view on U.S. government debt. Some economists and analysts have been expecting such a change in market sentiment for months and have been warning that it holds risks to the value of the U.S. dollar. . . . Mr. Kim reiterated his view. "Because the U.S....

'Leveraged' and 'Inverse' Funds Draw Dollars at Direxion . . . At a time when launches of exchange-traded funds have all but halted . . . Direxion Funds has a hit. In little more than two months, Direxion's family of "leveraged" and "inverse" ETFs, which help investors magnify bets or bet against certain sectors of the stock market, have picked up hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and trade millions of shares a day, even as criticism continues to dog that class of ETF. Talk of the Town The funds "have gotten extremely fast pick-up in terms of trading...

Does anybody have text versions of quotes over a timeline exposing the fools and the sages of economic predictions?

Consensus is it won't get better for years, and a few think it could get crazy bad for many years. A couple are optimistic. Gold is hot say many of them. Part I: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123154458136069579.html Part II: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123215888715192693.html?mod=b_hpp_9_0002_b_this_weeks_magazine_home_left&page=1 Scorecard for 2008 Roundtable picks (very bad): http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123156273219070849.html

Unelected Fed Vice-Chair tells Congress it's nobody's business who they give 1.4 trillion to, but admits that some of the money is going to other nations (China?) to to prop up the dollar. Of course, if China and Japan stop buying our treasuries our economy will go crazy bad.